President Obama Announces Reelection Campaign With a New Video

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And so it begins. Again. President Obama launched his reelection campaign on Monday with a video posted on his website. It doesn’t feature any footage or voice-overs from Obama, but instead the video focuses on grassroots supporters in an effort to kick off fund-raising efforts and make a bid for volunteers. The launch was timed with the fourth day of the fourth month, which Politico calls “symbolic” for the 44th president — and everyone else calls meaningless. The video emphasizes Obama’s underdog status going into the last election and the fact that he’s already got a job to do — like, say, making our involvement in Libya appear unwarlike. It also features a teenager moved by the president’s message but unable to vote in the last election, a nod to upcoming “Gen 44” youth fund-raising events. There’s the requisite melting pot mix of races and a subdued tone to the video that focuses, in generic terms, on the importance of the election rather than Obama’s accomplishments. The one older white male in the video, Ed from North Carolina, even tells the camera, “I don’t agree with Obama on everything,” following it up with, “but I respect him and I trust him.”

Today the campaign will file papers with the Federal Election Commission, allowing them to raise money “towards what may be the first $1 billion campaign effort,” says the Washington Post. Along with the video, Obama sent out an e-mail: